Sound, Visibility, and Zombie Aggro Behavior

[WitchZero 0]

I really enjoy the amounts of zombies in the last two patches (1.5.7 & .8) but I have noticed some behavior issues that bring up my observations and suggestions.

I've spent the last few days just sneaking in towns, playing with the zombie mechanics a bit. You can certainly sneak through a town if you pay attention. You can Slow Crouch behind a Zombie at 5 meters and ghost him. You can lay down to reduce visibility and let them pass. All the awesome stealth stuff you would want.

Sound and Visibility: Investigate Vs. Attack behaviors.

- If a Zombie sees/hears you but cannot identify you he will turn and walk, hop, or crawl in your direction to Investigate. I love this mechanic because it forces you to decide what you are going to do next. No waiting or thinking or hoping but to me there seems to be too fine of a line between open aggression and investigation. Especially based off of sound.

If a Zombie hears you with One Sound bar or more he will immediately go into Attack Mode even if he doesn't see you. These are generally the Sprinters that come running around the building just down the street or the fence that is just ahead.

I don't mean running through a town with 5 Sound and 5 Visibility. I'm talking about having 0-1 Sound and 1-2 Visibilty then Normal Crouching over some Hardpacked earth or Road and I might as well have fired a Makarov shot off.

Now this may be a sound balancing issue and not a Zombie issue. It could be related to the difference between one sound bar and no sound bar when stealthed..I don't know. Either way I think it can be balanced by Tweeking Zombie Behavior or Sound Strength.

Summary:

I suggest having Zombies investigate (turn and walk towards) minor sounds more than aggressively attacking you when they hear something.

I would even toy with the idea of having gunshots only bring the closer zombies in attack mode and the ones farther away investigate mode. The farther ones are still coming but they won't attack mode until they hear a gunshot or sound again when they are closer.

This would additionally provide more opportunities for the use of bottles and cans for distraction.

[rocket 16567]

I think this, it is in line with a few suggestions. I should have some kind of raytracing in the zombies soon which will vastly improve their behavior. Bit this is something I can toy with, not going to be easy but I can give this a go.

[turin turambar 0]

I also wrote a bit about the stealth in this game. You may want to take a look rocket ;)

http://dayzmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5822

[terrvik 2409]

It would be a good way to counter campers. Sure, you can lie down and snipe from afar but every zombie in a 200 meter radius heard that shot and are slowly moving to your position. Keep moving to stay alive!

[Kigrax 0]

@Rocket oh god yes how soon? Do you mean you're fixing the crazy zombie zig zag? Also side note is there any way I can donate money to the game?

[underscore 12]

I think this' date=' it is in line with a few suggestions. I should have some kind of raytracing in the zombies soon which will vastly improve their behavior. Bit this is something I can toy with, not going to be easy but I can give this a go.

[/quote']

Rocket, by ray tracing I assume we're talking about a LOS checker? I have written an unrealesed A2 script that does just that. The gist is it fires a 'projectile' at a very high speed and then returns whether it has reached the target. Let me know if you want to have a look at what I did and I'll send it over. Might be helpful if you run into any issues.